


Lies

by FuchsiaMae



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-23
Updated: 2015-04-23
Packaged: 2019-08-01 18:23:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16289486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuchsiaMae/pseuds/FuchsiaMae
Summary: It was little things, at first.(Originally posted to Tumblr 4/23/15)





	Lies

It was little things, at first.

Her job was to keep him happy, and she did it – yes we lost a few more test subjects that expected, but this data is invaluable; yes we overspent this quarter, but look at all the science we’ve done!

She told him what he wanted to hear. And if the truth wasn’t quite what he wanted, she’d blur it into a more pleasing shape.

A few employees saw something they shouldn’t have? Volunteer them for some high-risk tests, and those troublesome liabilities were taken care of. New product not testing as well as they’d hoped? Skew the results just a little and it could hit shelves next month! Changing a single digit could smarten up profits and smooth over casualty rates in the blink of an eye. Why, with a little careful paperwork, she could make people disappear so thoroughly their own mother wouldn’t notice they were gone.

That was her job. She made problems go away.

And she could take care of it all on her own. No one had to know – not even the boss himself. After all, a busy man like him didn’t have time to waste on every bump in the road, now did he? No need to worry him. She had it under control. 

But as the years went by, her work got harder to hide. Bigger setbacks meant bigger cover-ups. Her skill had once been convenient – now it was necessary. Aperture’s life depended on making problems go away.

Before she knew it, she was lying under oath. Now more than ever Mr. Johnson had to stay in the dark. She had to protect him. Because it wasn’t perjury if he didn’t know better, right?

But despite her tireless work, a few too many secrets slipped out. The media had a field day, dancing with the skeletons in their closet. They survived the hearings – barely – but the ship had sprung a leak too big for her to patch. The numbers didn’t add up anymore, no matter how she fudged them. 

One late night, she told him everything – and he told her everything. As it turned out, she wasn’t the only one who could keep secrets. He’d tried to protect her, too. 

They swore from then on not to hide things anymore. Of course, they both lied, and perhaps they both knew it. 

He never told her when his health began to fail. Never let her hear him coughing, never let her see him weak. But she knew. She spoke to his doctors in private, threatened them with dismissal or worse if they told him the truth. With her considerable power, she shielded him from this last, most unpleasant reality. She kept his spirits up. She kept him alive. It was for his own good. 

But he knew, too.

He was not a stupid man. He saw the writing on the wall, and he planned accordingly. He wrote a will, laid out one final project, assured that the company would be left in good hands. He did not tell her. Yes, she was the one it would all come to rest on, but she was under such stress already – no need to worry her more. Aperture would live, and so would she. It was for her own good. 


End file.
